It is common practice for two or three anesthetic vaporizer canisters to be maintained in side-by-side relationship on a mobile or stationary rack. Each of these anesthetic vaporizer canisters is charged with a different anesthetic. Located on the side of each canister is a refill means comprised of an integrally molded funnel terminating at an internally threaded fluid inlet opening into the interior of the canister. A stopper having a threaded base designed to engage the internal threads of the opening is provided in order to seal the canister.
To refill an anesthetic vaporizer canister, the threadably secured stopper is removed from the fluid inlet of the refill funnel and the liquid anesthetic is poured into the refill funnel and thence into the vaporizer canister. In order to prevent a mixture of different types of anesthetics in the same vaporizer canister, or to prevent the substitution of one type of anesthetic for another, a colour coding system is used, with each anesthetic canister and refill container being clearly marked with its distinguishing colour.
In order to further minimize the possibility of error particularly where several professionals share the same anesthetic equipment the refill key index described herein has been created.